FORT WORTH, TX - JUNE 09: Takuma Sato, driver of the #26 Andretti Autosport Honda, looks on during practice for the Verizon IndyCar Series Rainguard Water Sealers 600 at Texas Motor Speedway on June 9, 2017 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)
IndyCar: Takuma Sato tops fourth preseason test at Phoenix
Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Takuma Sato topped the fourth and final IndyCar preseason test at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.
Takuma Sato, the driver the #30 Honda for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, topped the speed chart in the fourth and final IndyCar test session of the weekend at ISM Raceway in Avondale, Arizona.
Sato has returned to the team for the first time since the 2012 season after spending four seasons driving for A.J. Foyt Enterprises from 2013 to 2016 and one season driving for Andretti Autosport last year.
This test marked the fourth time during which the IndyCars with the new universal aero kit drove in the same session. The other three tests of this type so far also took place this weekend, with two taking place yesterday and one taking place earlier today. This evening’s test was the final test of the weekend.
Sato, 41, topped the speed chart with a fastest lap time around the 1.022-mile tri-oval of 19.3790 seconds (189.855 miles per hour). He also topped the speed chart in the first session yesterday and the first session today.
Graham Rahal, Sato’s teammate who topped the speed chart in the second session yesterday, finished in 10th place in this session. The speed chart of second session yesterday that was topped by Rahal was the only speech chart of a session this weekend that was not topped by Sato.
Will Power, who drives the #12 Chevrolet for Team Penske, was the fastest driver of a Chevrolet-powered car in 2nd place. Chevrolet drivers took every spot in the top four on the speed chart except for 1st place.
The session’s top rookie was Dale Coyne Racing’s Pietro Fittipaldi, who is set to drive the team’s #19 Honda on a part-time basis this season. He finished in 10th place in the session. For the first time this weekend, Matheus Leist was not the top rookie in the session in his #4 A.J. Foyt Enterprises Chevrolet.
As referenced above, Chevrolet drivers took three of the top four spots in the session, and they also took five of the top nine. Honda drivers took four of the top seven and six of the top 11 spots. However, they also took the bottom four spots in a session that was pretty evenly split among the two engine manufacturers.
The fact that this session was so evenly split was nothing new this weekend, and this is largely due to the fact the new universal aero kits have been used for the first time.
Here are the full results of the fourth and final test session of this weekend.
| Rank | Driver | Car, Team, Engine |
| 1 | Takuma Sato | #30, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
| 2 | Will Power | #12, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 3 | Tony Kanaan | #14, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 4 | Josef Newgarden | #1, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 5 | Marco Andretti | #98, Andretti Herta Autosport, Honda |
| 6 | Alexander Rossi | #27, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 7 | Scott Dixon | #9, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 8 | Simon Pagenaud | #22, Team Penske, Chevrolet |
| 9 | Spencer Pigot | #21, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
| 10 | Pietro Fittipaldi | #19, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
| 11 | Graham Rahal | #15, Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing, Honda |
| 12 | Matheus Leist | #4, A.J. Foyt Enterprises, Chevrolet |
| 13 | Zach Veach | #26, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 14 | Charlie Kimball | #23, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 15 | Ed Jones | #10, Chip Ganassi Racing, Honda |
| 16 | Max Chilton | #59, Carlin Motorsport, Chevrolet |
| 17 | Gabby Chaves | #88, Harding Racing, Chevrolet |
| 18 | Ed Carpenter | #20, Ed Carpenter Racing, Chevrolet |
| 19 | Ryan Hunter-Reay | #28, Andretti Autosport, Honda |
| 20 | Sebastien Bourdais | #18, Dale Coyne Racing, Honda |
| 21 | James Hinchcliffe | #5, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
| 22 | Robert Wickens | #6, Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, Honda |
The 2018 IndyCar season is set to get underway with the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg on Sunday, March 11th. The race at ISM Raceway, the Phoenix Grand Prix, is scheduled for Saturday, April 7th as the second race of the season.
